Environmental policies are designed to deal with externalities either by internalizing environmental costs or imposing specific standards for environmental pollution. This study aims to examine the impact of environmental regulations related to End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) on innovation in Japan. We determined whether there is any statistical difference in patent activity comparing the periods before and after the regulations were enacted. In order to control for exogenous factors such as business cycles, we also analyzed the ratios of ELV and total environmental patents during the same periods. Results showed that environmental regulations drive innovations and the number of ELV-related patents were larger even after controlling for such exogenous factors. We concluded that environmental policy for ELV in Japan was effective in inducing innovation. However, we also found that the weakness in these types of command and control policy is the lack of incentives for further innovation.
Abstract-This study examines fermentative hydrogen production from untreated (raw) sludge and pretreated sludge by sterilization treatment (15, 30, 45, and 60 min) as substrate using mixed cultures in batch experiments under anaerobic thermophilic conditions. Longer treatment time was found to be highly effective for hydrolyzing organic matters in the sludge. Soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) of pretreated sludge was 1.2 to 1.9-fold higher than that of untreated sludge. Sterilization treatment was found to accelerate and increase hydrogen production throughout the batch mode, but with no measurable methane production. Pretreated (30 min) sludge presented an optimal condition, resulting in maximum hydrogen yield (25.1 ml H 2 /g-VS) and the highest hydrogen content (60.0%). Under the same conditions, enhanced hydrogen yield was 6.4-fold higher, which came with an additional benefit of efficient VS removal over the use of untreated sludge. This was attributed to destruction of solids in sludge during the solubilization process. Present findings have potential practical use in not only processes for efficient hydrogen production via anaerobic fermentation but also in waste treatment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.